What was they thinking when they did variant dungeons and criterion

[aveyond-dreams]

One pertinent question I have is who exactly is this Criterion content even meant to be for. I have no real issue with variant, I'd call that a success even if the rewards are a bit more sparse than id like. Savage raiders dont wanna do it cause rewards dont justify the effort, casual players wont be able to at all. Extreme players can't even get past the first boss. So the fact the reward is the game's fifth(?) chair mount with a price that continues to fall on the MB is like a slap in the face. Especially considering the existence of Criterion Savage. If I was mr square enix, I'd do this:

Leave variant alone, add a couple more rewards in the shop
Completely rework criterion. All bosses on one route, make them do more damage, add a couple of mechs to each boss.
Move current criterion to Savage, cause rn both versions are practically the same, and rn standard criterion is closer to savage than anything else.

In doing this, you create a difficulty gradient, instead of a difficulty staircase where the first step is 8 meters high.

It was asked for and intended for the WoW content creators who have long since been chased away by FFXIV's gcbtw behavior. Though I imagine even they would scoff at the pathetic state of this content's rewards.